III. The Psalms of David

III.(F) Psalm 22: From the Dust of Death to Praising God in the Congregation

In In Psalm 22:1,13-19 (JPT), David describes being killed:

1. a song of David.
2. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? [You are] far from my salvation [and] from the words of my moaning.
3. My God, I call out by day and You do not reply, and at night I do not keep silent.
13. Great bulls have surrounded me; the mighty ones of Bashan encompassed me.
14 They opened their mouth against me [like] a tearing, roaring lion.
15. I was spilled like water, and all my bones were separated; my heart was like wax, melting within my innards.
16. My strength became dried out like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my palate; and You set me down in the dust of death.
17. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet. [“dug my hands and feet” -Septuagint]
18. I tell about all my bones. They look and gloat over me.
19. They share my garments among themselves and cast lots for my raiment.

 David's words that he spilled like water, his bones separated, his heart melted, and God laid him in the "dust of death" show that he is talking about his death, and his description of predators opening their mouths against him and sharing his clothes show that he was killed.

But after describing his death, David also describes God saving him and praising God among people in Psalm 22:9,20-26(JPT):

9. One should cast his trust upon the Lord, and He will rescue him; He will save him because He delights in him.
20. But You, O Lord, do not distance Yourself; my strength, hasten to my assistance.
21. Save my soul from the sword, my only one from the grip of the dog.
22. Save me from the lion's mouth, as from the horns of the wild oxen You answered me.
23. I will tell Your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You.
24. You who fear the Lord, praise Him; all the seed of Jacob, honor Him, and fear Him, all the seed of Israel.
25. For He has neither despised nor abhorred the cry of the poor, neither has He hidden His countenance from him; and when he cried out to Him, He hearkened.
26. Because of You is my praise in the great congregation; I pay my vows in the presence of those who fear Him.

After describing his death David says that he will praise God among his brothers and in the congregation, so he means that he would resurrect to do this. Since "hearts" refer to souls, as in Psalm 16:10-11, David speaks of the general resurrection when he says that their "hearts shall live forever" and those in the dust shall kneel in Psalm 27,30(JPT):

27. The humble shall eat and be sated; they shall praise the Lord, those who seek him; your hearts shall live forever.
30. They shall eat all the best of the earth and prostrate themselves; before Him shall all those who descend to the dust kneel, and He will not quicken his soul. ["all those at death’s door, whose spirits flag, shall bend the knee before Him." -JPS]

David was not in reality killed by his enemies, so he is writing about himself poetically. Therefore, David describes himself as a poetic figure who is killed and resurrects. Since the scriptures use David as a poetic image for the Messiah, the Messiah would also match the poetic image of one who is killed and resurrects. Further, the 9th century rabbinic midrash Pesikta Rabbati (34-37) considers Psalm 22 to refer to the Messiah son of David suffering "for the sake of Israel."
 Jesus Christ's death and resurrection matches the poetic description of David's death and resurrection in Psalm 22. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus cried out the Psalm’s opening words, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" during the crucifixion. His suffering matched the poetic image of continuing both day and night, since he was condemned at night, crucified the next day, and there was darkness for three hours during the crucifixion. The strong soldiers who flogged and crucified him were like bulls and they cast lots for his cloak. While He was crucified, Jesus said He thirsted, and when a soldier pierced Him to see if He was dead, water spilled out.
 According to Father James Bernstein, the son of an ultra-Orthodox Rabbi, born in Jerusalem, prophetic scriptures like Psalm 22 "convinced me beyond any doubt" that Jesus is the Messiah. (Fr. Bernstein, Surprised by Christ, p.18) He became a Christian as a teenager, lived with Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, and later became an Antiochian Orthodox priest. Besides the above analogies, Fr. Bernstein discovered a parallel between:
The ridiculing of David in Psalm 22:8-9(JPS):
8 All who see me mock me; they curl their lips, they shake their heads.
9 “Let him commit himself to the Lord; let Him rescue him, let Him save him, for He is pleased with him.”
And the ridiculing of Jesus in Mark 15:29 and Matthew 27:41-43:
41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

Scholars disagree over whether Psalm 22:17 says "a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet" or " a band of evildoers has encompassed me, they have dug/pierced my hands and feet."

Most Masoretic texts that scholars use to translate the Bible into English say “like a lion” (in Hebrew: “ka’ari”). However, this translation has several problems. The phrase “like a lion, my hands and feet” is confusing and grammatically incomplete without a verb, although it’s true that the Psalm’s second verse about groaning is incomplete in Hebrew, perhaps for rhetorical effect to suggest groaning. Further, the other times the Bible expresses “like a lion” in the same form (ka’ari), the Bible mentions a verb to go with the phrase. (Isaiah 38:13, Numbers 23.24; 24.9; Ezekiel 22.25).

Since the grammar demands a verb, the JPS translation creates one in brackets: “like lions [they maul] my hands and feet.” And the Targum, or Rabbinical commentary, on the verse says: "they bite like a lion my hands and my feet". This majority translation provides an analogy to Jesus’ crucifixion: when the soldiers nailed Jesus’ hands and feet, they acted like the evildoers who metaphorically bit his hands and feet like a lion.

Still, scholars have other reasons to doubt that the verse actually says “like a lion”(ka’ari). The other times the Psalms say “lion”, they use other words for lion (like “aryeh” instead of “ari”), including the other times Psalm 22 mentions lions. (Psalms 7:2, 10:9, 17:12, 22:13, 22:21, 35:17; 57:4, 91:13)
 Further, unlike “like a lion my hands and feet,” the surrounding verses explicitly state the negative actions against the person’s body and clothes:
v.15: the person was “spilled”, the bones are “separated”, the heart “melts”;
v.16: the strength “dries out”, the tongue “cleaves”, God “sets down” David in dust
v. 17: dogs “surrounded” him, evildoers “encompassed” him, the hands and feet “?”
v. 18: He “counts/tells about” his bones, the bones “look” and “gloat” at him
v. 19: They “share” the garments, they “cast lots” for the robe.
In this context, it seems that the verse should explicitly state an action happening to the hands and feet.

Instead of “like a lion” (ka’ari), two Masoretic manuscripts have an action: “they have dug” (karu). (Glenn Miller, “Did the Christians Invent the Pierced thing,” http://christianthinktank.com/ps22cheat.html) The Greek Septuagint copy of the text says “they have dug” (“oruksan” in Greek). Although the Septuagint was written in Greek, it has some reliability, because it dates from the 3rd century BC- the 1st century AD. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term “karu” and the Greek term “oruksan” mean to digging a pit or well in the ground. However, in Psalm 40:6, the terms metaphorically describe God opening David’s ears by “digging” them. So Psalm 22 could use the term “digging” to metaphorically describe putting holes in his hands and feet.

And instead of “dug”, the Aramaic “Peshitta” copy of the Old Testament, produced for Syrian converts to Judaism in the 1st century BC, uses the Aramaic term “baz’w”, which means “pierce” or “hack off”. This may be the Aramaic translators’ metaphorical interpretation of the term “dig” (karu).

The Dead Sea Scrolls, and several other Masoretic texts appear to explain the confusion, as they use the word “ka’aru”, which looks similar to both “like a lion”(ka’ari and “they have dug”(karu).  The Dead Sea Scroll that says “ka’aru” is the oldest remaining physical copy of Psalm 22, and dates from 50-135AD (XHev/Se4, f.11, line 4). To illustrate:

The difference between Ka’aru and Ka’ari is the “u” (“vav”, a long letter ו) and the “I”(“yod”, a short letter י). The Scroll appears below (See: http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/Ps22.16.pdf and http://onedaringjew.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/kaaru.jpg for the scroll's image):
  
 

It’s clear from the Dead Sea Scroll that it says “Ka’aru”, spelled with a long “vav” letter, because "we have a perfect example for comparison, since the very next letter following the word in question is a yod: “my hands” (hydy). The last letter of ka’aru is with out doubt a vav when compared with the beginning letter of the next word which is clearly a yod.” (Tim Hegg, “Studies in the Biblical Text: Psalm 22:16 – ‘like a lion” or “they pierced’?” http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/Ps22.16.pdf). That is, the size of the surrounding “U”s and “I”s show that the writer intended to make a “U” in “Ka’aru.”

What does “Ka’aru” mean? It doesn’t mean “like a lion”, because Ka’ari used “ari”(lion) to make “like a lion”. More likely, “Ka’aru” is an alternate spelling of “Karu”. The difference is the added “a” (“aleph”, א) in Ka’aru. Sometimes ancient Hebrew an aleph to words as an alternate spelling. Hebrew professor James Price gives examples from Hebrew of other word variants with an added “aleph” (which he writes as ‘ instead of ‘a): "bo'r, bor (pit, cistern) from the verb bur (dig); da'g, dag (fish) from the verb dug (fish for); la't, lat (secrecy) from the verb lut (be secret); m'um, mum (blemish); n'od, nod (skin); q'am, qam (he arose); ra'sh, rash (poor) from the verb rush (be poor);"  (James Price, Response to a Skeptic, http://www.messianicart.com/chazak/yeshua/responsetoskeptic.htm) The scholars Keil and Delitzsch also note that Zechariah 14:10 and Daniel 7:16 have added alephs in the words ra’ama and ka’amaiya. (Keil and Delitzsch, "Commentary on the Old Testament", Volume 5, page 319). ”The long-standing consensus has been that ka'aru is the Hasmonean-era spelling of the Hebrew word karu (כרו), which means "they have dug." At this time in history, spelling was not standardized, and Hebrew was heavily influenced by its sister language Aramaic, which could introduce the letter aleph.” (Ruben Barrett, Bible Q&A: Psalm 22, http://www.hadavar.net/articles/45-biblequestionsanswers/54-psalm22questions.html).

So one explanation is that the Hebrew originally said “karu”(dug), it later was written in the Hasmonean period as “ka’aru”. Then the Septuagint version found the word “karu”, or interpreted “ka’aru” to mean “karu” (“dug”), and the Peshitta version interpreted “dug” to mean “pierced.”

If the Hebrew said ka’aru, meaning “dug”, it can still apply to Jesus. Putting a hole in someone’s arm with a nail is not a simple piercing like with a spear, but a repetitive mechanical motion digging into the person’s arm. And since Psalm 40:6 has a metaphor of God “digging” someone’s ears, and the verses around Psalm 22:17 use metaphors for the person’s harm ( the person “spills”, the heart “melts”, the tongue “cleaves”, the strength “dries”, the bones “gloat”), it fits that Psalm 22:17 metaphorically describes the evildoers harmfully “digging” David’s hands and feet.
Additionally, the Hebrew word for "hand" here, "yod," also means “hand/wrist/arm”, and Jesus Christ's hands/wrists and feet were nailed to the cross.

King David the Sweet Singer